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Robert Wilson’s Lulu performed by The Berliner Ensemble

Sat in the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm surrounded by an audience dripping with Berlin cool, it is hard not to feel a shiver of anticipation at the prospect of seeing the Berliner Ensemble performing Robert Wilson’s premier of Frank Wedekind’s Lulu. Oh alright who am I kidding, I and the rest of this cultivated crowd are practically bouncing with excitement. A blinding white stage cloth with LULU neatly typed in the centre teases us with its bald potential; there’s a lot of expectation riding on thesefour little letters.

Most companies or artists who approach Lulu seem intent on stripping away the layers of this iconic temptress to ‘reveal the real woman underneath’. Not so for Wilson who, if anything, has given more ritual to the sordid tale of Wedekind’s libido–driven nymph. This is classic Wilson, with highly choreographed movement encased within an architecturally sharp mise en scene. It is a world where minimalism mingles happily with melodramatic theatrical campery.

Black Victorian attire drapes our white-faced, wide-eyed cast as they scuttle and shift, shimmer and shake against the stunning white cyclorama. As we go on colour infects this backdrop with violent force, dying the space like ink from a syringe. Black structures create a playground of chairs and stairs for this cast of automated marionettes to devour one another on. In the second act, as the action moves to Paris, a set of poplar trees and hanging chandeliers is applauded as a piece of art in its own right.

With a look so distinctive there is always a very present danger of typecasting but Wilson’s talent is his ability to constantly surprise. A well placed flash of green communicates lust as well as envy, the sensual temptation of a Japanese geisha sings out in the stiffly corseted Lulu’s shuffling wiggle. In the midst of cool lines and shadow play even the worlds’ sexiest pelvis is paid homage to in I Remember You. In this ensemble number Lulu’s admirers sidestep languidly backwards and forwards within cages in a effortless piece of choreography that positively screams Jailhouse Rock.

It is the marriage between control and debauchery, animalistic wants and coldly clinical needs that defines this Lulu. Angela Winkler (an institution in her own right) embodies this seemingly impossible synergy in one fragile girl/woman. Her tinkling laugh hides a demon’s intent to get what she wants but her eyes shine with the destructive desperation of a fallen angel.

Whilst it is Winkler’s soul we see on stage, Lou Reed gives her a powerful voice to express it with dirty but heartbreaking songs that lace through this piece like veins through a body. Reed’s melodies are as potently unfussy as Wilson’s imagery but his lyrics bring a visceral spit to the mouths of these smooth doll–like figures.

Like a well–moisturised hand slipping into a silken glove, Wilson’s epic theatricality sits beautifully in the hallowed halls of the Berliner Ensemble. Bertolt Brecht, in typically contradictory style, would surely delight in Wilson’s very own take on Verfremdungseffekt even in this bourgeois incarnation; each luscious Gestus is a potent challenge to an equally polished audience.

For all Brecht’s belly-aching about emotionless theatre, it was his pieces that encompassed both the cerebral and emotive that packed the biggest punch, and so it is here. Wilson’s cerebral design both tempts its audience and holds it firmly at arms length (much like it’s coquettish star), but Lulu is also deeply engaging.

The final number is astonishing to look at with floating green heads surrounding an eerie David Bowie-esque Albino murderer and comprises a spine tingling choral vocal (led by the glorious Anke Engelsmann, whose Nico vocal is uncanny). But mostimportantly it transcends the sum of its sleek parts. Wilson has used the resplendent stage play, rich dressing and Reed’s delicately wrenching music to maximum effect. In doing so he has side stepped any critics of a style over substance barb, creating a deeply disturbing and powerful piece of psychological drama that hits the audience just where it hurts, right in the gut.

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3 thoughts on “Robert Wilson’s Lulu performed by The Berliner Ensemble”

Berliner Ensemble Production of “Lulu” is a silly disappointing empty shell in which seemingly gifted actors are manipulated into meaningless “performance art” type of caricaturization. Very odd to see such childish nonsense in a production with sets not even up to Off Broadway standards in a legendary theater such as this. Handsome costumes and makeup – lighting focused on the right places includes neon lights, which are the least of this production’s problems.

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